Analyzing the Category of Advertisements - Essay Example

?Your F. 10 April Analysis of Advertisements What is an advertisement? It is a paid announcement using various means of media to promote sales. It is often a public notice in print or often calls attention to the audience. It makes a call of action known (Dictionary.com). When it comes to the millions of dollars spent on advertising, each method of advertising is targeted toward a particular demographic. While it remains unclear to the people on the outside if the advertisements actually work, we can generalize whether or not the advertisements appeal to us, especially if we are a part of the targeted demographic. Multiple methods of advertising reaches out to the most people possible. To determine whether these marketing tactics work, a return on the dollar ratio is calculated by each company's marketing team. When looking for certain advertisements to categorize together, it was easy to see that many of them are somewhat similar depending on the product. Fragrance advertisements all look the same with any celebrity aiming to make a dollar has a fragrance line up and coming. Celebrities are also used to endorse a wide variety of products of anything from make up with spokespeople such as Drew Barrymore and Ellen DeGeneres to tennis shoes endorsed by popular athletes such as Michael Jordan. When trying to evaluate which genre of advertising to choose to analyze, I decided upon weight loss program advertisements. This includes weight loss supplements and dieting programs and can even combine that with fitness programs that guarantee that people will get ripped bodies in just a matter of a few months. The many avenues for advertising include billboards, television, radio, mobile advertisements, online advertising and print advertisements in newspapers and magazines. When analyzing weight loss program advertisements, various products are marketed on virtually every avenue. The products range from crash diets and magic pills to lifestyle changing diets and workout regimens. For this genre, the marketing processes are all across the board, targeting a variety of people. As Americans, with obesity on the rise, many of these weight loss programs can appeal to a variety of different audiences. However, they are all effective in their own way, appealing to audiences of different ages and both male and female either for an instant weight loss change or one that is more gradual and requires discipline. One advertisement that I have seen rather frequently is one that appears in many celebrity gossip magazines. The product is NV and it promises the product buyer that a person can drop one jean size in two weeks. The advertisement is endorsed by former Playboy bunny and ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, Holly Madison. She can be categorized herself as a 30-something year old bombshell. Already thin, the advertisement shows Holly Madison heading to a grocery store in an already too tight shirt with a little bit of belly flab hanging out. In the advertisement, it has her own caption written stating that she looked awful in that picture and after using NV got her body back. She is then pictured looking slim and glamorous and the product is called one that acts fast and that it is one of Hollywood's secrets of the stars who need to lose weight immediately. The advertisement prominently displays Holly Madison's hot new body after using a weight loss product and also shows a smaller photo of the actual product. It advertises which major chain retailers that the product can be found and also gives a web address for those looking at the advertisement and says that a person may be able to try a bottle for free. While flipping through other magazines of this same type, celebrity gossip, the same advertisement can be found throughout. Some of them are single spreads and some are even a full three pages of full color advertisements showing the beauty and glamour of being able able to drop weight fast just like the celebrities do. Readers of this type of magazine are typically female and based on the content, would appeal to women that are mostly in their twenties up to their mid-forties. The focus of the magazines are style, fashion, beauty and celebrity stories. It is the perfect audience for people looking to lose weight fast and other advertisements in the same magazine are also pinpointed at a similar targeted audience. The same magazine's cover story talks about reality star celebrity Kim Kardashian bikini-clad, exposing her summer-ready body exercise tips so even the cover promotes weight loss secrets. So not only does this magazine target the correct audience, but it has articles that reinforce the need to lose weight to get ready for summer. This already puts the idea of weight loss into the readers' head so while they can read Kim Kardashian's weight loss tips, they are also able to see that they can do it faster with a special NV product that can work in two weeks. However, within the article about Kim Kardashian, though it is not a traditional advertisement, it does give a slight blurb about that Kim takes QuickTrim diet supplements to curb her appetite and keep her energized. Alongside the single sentence exercise-free tips to get a summer ready body is a small photo of QuickTrim weight loss supplement with no one else but Kim Kardashian on the box of the product as a celebrity to endorse the product. It is free advertising for the weight loss QuickTrim product and is one that Kim is a spokesperson for already. The articles in the same magazine continue to discuss other celebrities that have slimmed down for summer to be bikini ready. It comes as no surprise that after reading these articles that a reader would be looking for ways to look like celebrities, becoming thinner. This is the ideal magazine issue for any weight loss products to be advertised in for the reason that there is such an emphasis on weight loss within the content. The same issue of this particular magazine also has an advertisement that is splashed through, cutting one article completely in half running the full left and right hand pages with a banner. The product is for Ab Cuts which is claimed to not be just a diet pill but also a lifestyle pill. The large photo of the product says that it helps for weight loss support and also gives information on where the product can be purchased as well as the web address. Then you turn the page and there is a full page, full color advertisement with yet another celebrity endorsing the product. This time it is Trista Sutter, a former star of “The Bachelorette” television show. The advertisement has a testimonial from Trista claiming that it really works along with an inset photograph of her holding her son and looking heavier and then showing her in a larger picture looking more glamorous in her tight little black dress. This makes her look more like a real life person rather than a celebrity. The Ab Cuts advertisement also tells of the ingredients that are within the product, claiming that it has some of the Omega nutrients and no stimulants to create jitters. Within the same exact issue as these other two magazine advertisements is yet another advertisement for a weight loss product. Rather than the other two advertisements, this one has the appearance of an advertorial. It appears to look like an informative article with the headline “Controversial 'Diet Pill' Hits Market...Consumers Excited...Experts Concerned!” It appears like a true article and even has an author listed as a person who wrote it. This advertisement, article reprint, shows a picture of two young women depicted shopping at a pharmacy, looking at the product, TriAdalean with the caption describing that the weight loss product is flying off the shelf. The advertorial quotes a few doctors and diet and weight loss experts and even hints in its closing paragraph that it is for women of a certain type calling the TriAdalean product, mother's little helpers but then goes on to encourage anyone interested in the product to talk it over with their health care provider. This type of advertisement has the same target audience as the other two print ads but takes a different approach by appealing to someone who will take time to read the entire advertisement while it appears to be a sensational article to be read just like the rest of the articles in the magazine. It also shows women that are average an not celebrities. However, the models are thin already and appear to have little problem with their weight. This makes a total of three weight loss product advertisements in one single magazine which is focused on celebrity gossip. A similar type of magazine shows a half page vertical article featuring singer Mariah Carey. She is promoting the Jenny Craig lifestyle changing and dieting program. The advertisement shows Mariah Carey looking stunning and even has her signature next to the area where it says that she lost thirty pounds using the Jenny Craig program. The advertisement encourages people to call for information about Jenny Craig's diet program and also lists the website along with the icons for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube indicating that the information can also be found on the social media networks. There is not as much hype in this particular magazine about weight loss as the previous one though the single article in it that does discuss obtaining a bikini body is yet again, an article about Kim Kardashian's weight loss tips. The small caption next to her bikini body does mention that she is QuickTrim's spokesperson but indicates that she has a much more tedious workout regimen than the previous article in the other magazine did. Toward the back of this same magazine is another advertisement for “America's number one selling weight loss supplement brand,” and is an ad for Hydroxycut. The advertisement shows a huge photo of a woman in a bikini and then shows a smaller inset photo of a before and after picture. The claim is that the young woman lost thirty-one pounds with the weight loss product and adds credibility by giving a testimonial with a name. She is not famous or a celebrity. The advertisement also shows clinically proven results with a graph that shows that there was a scientific study performed. A small inset of a New York doctor also adds his recommendation that Hydroxycut is a suitable weight loss product. The advertisement includes the logos of the major retailers where it can be purchased along with a web address. The next page after that is another full page advertisement for the “World's most Advanced Weight Loss Aid Ever Developed.” Toward the top is a name of a pharmaceutical company which hints toward the fact that it would be as safe as any other medication. This ad is for Fastin and gives several bullet points of how it works, shows a picture of the product and shows a photo of a doctor as well as offers a testimonial of recommendation from this doctor. There is a web address as well as numerous logos of retailers that carry Fastin. It differs from the other weight loss product advertisements because it emphasizes the claims rather than showing celebrities or people who have had results. When looking through a fitness magazine for women, I was somewhat surprised to find that there were hardly any advertisements for any weight loss supplements. The one weight loss product advertisement was not necessarily a glamorized one. It stated that she loved her butt and had lost two waist sizes in three weeks. Again the doctor's picture was in the corner to recommend the product but the emphasis was on the natural ingredients of the product of Lichi. These ingredients include acai extract and green tea among other all natural ingredients. The hype ads for weight loss were the same exact Hydroxycut and NV advertisements found in the celebrity gossip magazines. The additional advertisement that was for a weight loss product was for SlimQuick fat burner which encouraged people to take a twenty-five pound weight loss challenge. The focus again is on the product and is not glamorized and offers additional help with a personal trainer and other weight loss support plans. While there was mostly a lack of fad diet products in this magazine, there were instead advertisements for products that created a more sculpted body using products such as shower gel, body cream and lotions that would fight cellulite, make the body smoother, tighter and appear sculpted. Though it is not a weight loss product, some of the goals are the same, just different products. These are all natural ways to have a tighter body, still putting an emphasis on the appearance of the body. The other advertisements that trigger weight loss in this particular publication are not fad diet pills or weight loss programs. Instead, the focus is on working out or obtaining a healthy body through protein bars and supplements and fitness rather than weight loss products. Among these ads found in the magazines, there are a plethora of advertisements found on the Internet and especially television. Weight loss products that are commonly found online include the hype and fad diet pills and supplements. Others though are celebrity endorsed weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers, endorsed by both male and female celebrities ranging from a thinner singer Jennifer Hudson to former basketball star Charles Barkley dressed in drag. The advertisements that seem the most predominant are the ones that promise quick and easy results that do not require exercise in conjunction with taking them. They instead promise fast results and these products can be purchased over the counter at numerous major chain retailers. Weight loss fad diet advertisements are commonly glamorous and have celebrity stars that had very little of a weight problem to begin with and then show up with stunning new bodies. Regardless of the advertisement, they seem to be working because the advertisements for this genre are everywhere, especially targeting people from their twenties to their forties and mostly women. Works Cited “Advertisements.” Dictionary.com, LLC. 2012. Read More